Netflix Dishes About Blockbuster Deal

Netflix believes Dish Network will use Blockbuster to compete with its streaming service.

NEW YORK ( TheStreet) -- Netflix ( NFLX) believes Dish Network ( DISH) could become its latest competitor following its acquisition of Blockbuster.

"We really don't know what Dish is up to, but presumably they paid a couple hundred million for Blockbuster -- not for its technology but for its brand," Chief Executive Reed Hastings said on a call with Wall Street. "It's a well-known brand. And they would do that; it would be consistent to do that if they had plans to launch a service with a fair amount of content and a fair amount of marketing such that it would make sense to pay $300 million to be able to use the Blockbuster brand."

Dish Network made the winning bid of $320 million for Blockbuster earlier in the month. Dish said last week in a court filing that it plans to keep open about 500 Blockbuster stores. The flailing movie retailer currently has about 1,700 remaining locations.